Theme: HERD MENTALITY (57A: Pressure to conform, and a hint to the hidden word found in 20-, 27- and 51-Across)
20A: Ralph McInerny's priest/detective: FATHER DOWLING
27A: Place to order gefilte fish: KOSHER DELI
51A: Scarlett's last words: ANOTHER DAY
I only know bunker mentality. Have never heard of HERD MENTALITY. Is it like "peer pressure"?
FATHER DOWLING was a total stranger to me, so was the author Ralph McInerny. Cantonese love their fish balls. The cooking procedure is quite similar to that of gefilte fish.
Several good clues in this puzzle. My favorite is CTS (54A: Short change?) - short for CENTS. I was also very happy to see O'NEIL (66A: Negro league great Buck) in the grid. He was such a humble & classy guy. There was not even one iota of bitterness when he was rejected for Hall of Fame in 2006. I wonder why there is only one L in his surname. Tip O'Neill, Shaq O'Neill, (Note: I was wrong. It's Shaq O'Neal), Eugene O'Neill all have two L's.
Several trouble spots for me earlier. I was not very excited about the theme either. Somehow the old ennui started to settle in and possessed my thinking. I adored Jack McInturff's "IR-RI-tating" puzzle. It's more fun. And the SKIS clue (Street supplies?) is very unforgettable last time. I guess I need a stimulus shot. Oh well, as Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is ANOTHER DAY".
Across:
1A: Features of some notebooks: TABS. I was thinking of the notebook computers. What's the difference between a notebook and a laptop anyway?
5A: Van __, Calif.: NUYS. No idea. Wikipedia says the TV show "Beverly Hill 90210" was filmed on a set in Van NUYS. Strange name. Is it named after some Dutch guy?
9A: Like most acorns: OVOID. I wanted DRIED.
14A: Fumbling reaction: UH OH. BOOS came to my mind first. I did not get its crossing AHA (2D: "Of course") immediately. Wanted YES.
15A: One of Chekhov's "Three Sisters": OLGA. Literally "Holy". Easy guess. The other two sisters are: Masha & Irina. Cute little girls.
16A: Whinnying African: ZEBRA. Oh, I did not know ZEBRA's call is whinny.
17A: Kotter portrayer Kaplan: GABE. Not a familiar actor to me. Wikipedia says he is a professional poker player as well. I have never heard of the sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter".
19A: Winner over Alexander in 1804: AARON. I knew the result of Burr-Hamilton duel. Was unaware the reason though. Thought it's a fight for some woman.
23A: Console: SOOTHE. Verb.
26A: That's a moray: EEL. Moray EEL lives in tropical and subtropical seas. The freshwater eel is conger, or unagi when cooked. Delicious!
35A: Irish author Binchy: MAEVE. No idea. From Irish name Madb, literally "Intoxicating" or "she who intoxicates". So close to the purple color mauve. She wrote "Circle of Friends", which was later made into a movie starring Chris O'Donnell and Minnie Driver. Her face looks very familiar.
37A: It has a legend: MAP. Ah, I was stumped. Good one.
39A: "A literary device for saying almost everything about anything": Huxley: ESSAY. This clue feels so incomplete.
43A: Horned viper: ASP. Why horned? Where is the horn?
47A: "This __stickup": IS A. I would have got it immediately if the clue were "This ____ TEST" (45A: Try).
48A: __ were: AS IT. A new phrase to me. Sounds so weird: AS IT were. Can you make a sentence for me?
55A: Burt's costar in "The Killers": AVA (Gardner). Have never heard of "The Killers". It's based in part on the short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, says Wikipedia.
56A: Port ENE of Cleveland, O.: ERIE, PA. Why O instead of OH?
61A: First toothbrush to go to the moon: ORAL-B. Good to know this trivia (1969, Apollo 11).
67A: Deco notable: ERTE. In case you missed last time, his real name is Romain de Tiroff. ERTE is the French pronunciation of his initials R.T.
68A: Largest known dwarf planet: ERIS. New to me. ERIS is always clued as "Greek goddess of discord" in our old puzzle.
Down:
1D: Harbor vessel: TUG. Just learned yesterday that VAS is a prefix for vessel, as in vasectomy, "ec" is "out of", "tomy" means "cutting, incision". There you have it, vas-ec-tomy, ouch!
3D: Choreographer with nine Tonys: BOB FOSSE. The "Cabaret" director. Amazing, 9 Tonys.
4D: Sword holder: SHEATH. The verb is sheathe.
5D: Unlikely protagonist: NONHERO. Like whom? I did not really understand this answer when it's clued exactly the same last time.
6D: Peter Fonda role: ULEE. "ULEE's Gold".
7D: Lab assistant in a 1939 film: YGOR. Oh, I always thought it's spelled as IGOR.
9D: Conductor Seiji: OZAWA. Gosh, how come I can never remember his name? He was born in Shenyang, China when it's under Japanese occupation. Many people thought Pearl Buck was born in China. She was not. Her family moved there when she was a baby. Chinese was her first language though.
10D: Baby beef?: VEAL. I was half-awake I guess. I wrote down CALF first.
11D: Leno's successor-to-be: O'BRIEN (Conan). He will be the host of "The Tonight Show" on June 1, 2009.
12D: One with pressing duties?: IRONER. Nailed it without any hesitation. Saw identical clue somewhere before.
13D: Hang loosely: DANGLE
21D: Doctors' works: THESES. Plural of thesis. I was thinking of the real doctors, not Ph. D candidates.
22D: Mixed bag: OLIO
23D: Take from the top: SKIM. Not fond of the clue. TAKE is an answer for 63A: Grab.
24D: O'Neill's daughter: OONA. Did Chaplin cheat on her while they were married?
29D: Love poetry Muse: ERATO
30D: "__ on me": IT'S. Kept thinking LEAN on me.
34D: "Great" tzar: PETER I. I only knew him as PETER the Great (1672-1725). He westernized Russia and transformed the Russian tzardom into Russian Empire.
40D: Spot for a garden: SIDE YARD. None of these flowers attracts me.
41D: "Pronto": ASAP. The medical ASAP is STAT.
46A: Basic need: SHELTER. I thought of BREATHE. It has 7 letters also.
48D: Blessing evokers: ACHOOS. I like last time's "Cold burst?" clue. I also like Rich Norris's "Polar outbust?" for BRR.
49D: Canned heat: STERNO. Not a familiar brand name to me. How do you use it?
50D: Sabra's home: ISRAEL. I forgot what/who Sabra is. Last time SABRA was clued as "Native Israeli". It's literally "prickly pear". A person who immigrates to ISRAEL is called OLEH (masculine) or OLAH (feminine).
52D: 1598 edict city: NANTES. Edict of NANTES.
53D: Cowboy singer TEX: RITTER. Father of John RITTER.
58D: MDCLXII÷III: DLIV. 1662/3=554. So proud that I got the answer. Took me 2 minutes to calculate. What can I say? I am slow.
59D: Container weight: TARE. What is the other 4-letter word very similar to TARE? Also weight related. It appears in Xword often also.
60D: __ de vente: bill of sale: ACTE. Not familiar with "ACTE de vente". I do know vente is "sale" in French though.
64D: Rio or Rondo: KIA. The Korean hanja 起亞 (KIA) means "Rising out of Asia". The same characters in Chinese. KI is "rising", A is "Asia".
65D: Shaky start?: ESS. The start of "Shaky" is letter S.
Answer grid.
C.C.
PS: Our fellow solver Carl V sent me this wonderful famous people painting link.
20A: Ralph McInerny's priest/detective: FATHER DOWLING
27A: Place to order gefilte fish: KOSHER DELI
51A: Scarlett's last words: ANOTHER DAY
I only know bunker mentality. Have never heard of HERD MENTALITY. Is it like "peer pressure"?
FATHER DOWLING was a total stranger to me, so was the author Ralph McInerny. Cantonese love their fish balls. The cooking procedure is quite similar to that of gefilte fish.
Several good clues in this puzzle. My favorite is CTS (54A: Short change?) - short for CENTS. I was also very happy to see O'NEIL (66A: Negro league great Buck) in the grid. He was such a humble & classy guy. There was not even one iota of bitterness when he was rejected for Hall of Fame in 2006. I wonder why there is only one L in his surname. Tip O'Neill, Shaq O'Neill, (Note: I was wrong. It's Shaq O'Neal), Eugene O'Neill all have two L's.
Several trouble spots for me earlier. I was not very excited about the theme either. Somehow the old ennui started to settle in and possessed my thinking. I adored Jack McInturff's "IR-RI-tating" puzzle. It's more fun. And the SKIS clue (Street supplies?) is very unforgettable last time. I guess I need a stimulus shot. Oh well, as Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is ANOTHER DAY".
Across:
1A: Features of some notebooks: TABS. I was thinking of the notebook computers. What's the difference between a notebook and a laptop anyway?
5A: Van __, Calif.: NUYS. No idea. Wikipedia says the TV show "Beverly Hill 90210" was filmed on a set in Van NUYS. Strange name. Is it named after some Dutch guy?
9A: Like most acorns: OVOID. I wanted DRIED.
14A: Fumbling reaction: UH OH. BOOS came to my mind first. I did not get its crossing AHA (2D: "Of course") immediately. Wanted YES.
15A: One of Chekhov's "Three Sisters": OLGA. Literally "Holy". Easy guess. The other two sisters are: Masha & Irina. Cute little girls.
16A: Whinnying African: ZEBRA. Oh, I did not know ZEBRA's call is whinny.
17A: Kotter portrayer Kaplan: GABE. Not a familiar actor to me. Wikipedia says he is a professional poker player as well. I have never heard of the sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter".
19A: Winner over Alexander in 1804: AARON. I knew the result of Burr-Hamilton duel. Was unaware the reason though. Thought it's a fight for some woman.
23A: Console: SOOTHE. Verb.
26A: That's a moray: EEL. Moray EEL lives in tropical and subtropical seas. The freshwater eel is conger, or unagi when cooked. Delicious!
35A: Irish author Binchy: MAEVE. No idea. From Irish name Madb, literally "Intoxicating" or "she who intoxicates". So close to the purple color mauve. She wrote "Circle of Friends", which was later made into a movie starring Chris O'Donnell and Minnie Driver. Her face looks very familiar.
37A: It has a legend: MAP. Ah, I was stumped. Good one.
39A: "A literary device for saying almost everything about anything": Huxley: ESSAY. This clue feels so incomplete.
43A: Horned viper: ASP. Why horned? Where is the horn?
47A: "This __stickup": IS A. I would have got it immediately if the clue were "This ____ TEST" (45A: Try).
48A: __ were: AS IT. A new phrase to me. Sounds so weird: AS IT were. Can you make a sentence for me?
55A: Burt's costar in "The Killers": AVA (Gardner). Have never heard of "The Killers". It's based in part on the short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, says Wikipedia.
56A: Port ENE of Cleveland, O.: ERIE, PA. Why O instead of OH?
61A: First toothbrush to go to the moon: ORAL-B. Good to know this trivia (1969, Apollo 11).
67A: Deco notable: ERTE. In case you missed last time, his real name is Romain de Tiroff. ERTE is the French pronunciation of his initials R.T.
68A: Largest known dwarf planet: ERIS. New to me. ERIS is always clued as "Greek goddess of discord" in our old puzzle.
Down:
1D: Harbor vessel: TUG. Just learned yesterday that VAS is a prefix for vessel, as in vasectomy, "ec" is "out of", "tomy" means "cutting, incision". There you have it, vas-ec-tomy, ouch!
3D: Choreographer with nine Tonys: BOB FOSSE. The "Cabaret" director. Amazing, 9 Tonys.
4D: Sword holder: SHEATH. The verb is sheathe.
5D: Unlikely protagonist: NONHERO. Like whom? I did not really understand this answer when it's clued exactly the same last time.
6D: Peter Fonda role: ULEE. "ULEE's Gold".
7D: Lab assistant in a 1939 film: YGOR. Oh, I always thought it's spelled as IGOR.
9D: Conductor Seiji: OZAWA. Gosh, how come I can never remember his name? He was born in Shenyang, China when it's under Japanese occupation. Many people thought Pearl Buck was born in China. She was not. Her family moved there when she was a baby. Chinese was her first language though.
10D: Baby beef?: VEAL. I was half-awake I guess. I wrote down CALF first.
11D: Leno's successor-to-be: O'BRIEN (Conan). He will be the host of "The Tonight Show" on June 1, 2009.
12D: One with pressing duties?: IRONER. Nailed it without any hesitation. Saw identical clue somewhere before.
13D: Hang loosely: DANGLE
21D: Doctors' works: THESES. Plural of thesis. I was thinking of the real doctors, not Ph. D candidates.
22D: Mixed bag: OLIO
23D: Take from the top: SKIM. Not fond of the clue. TAKE is an answer for 63A: Grab.
24D: O'Neill's daughter: OONA. Did Chaplin cheat on her while they were married?
29D: Love poetry Muse: ERATO
30D: "__ on me": IT'S. Kept thinking LEAN on me.
34D: "Great" tzar: PETER I. I only knew him as PETER the Great (1672-1725). He westernized Russia and transformed the Russian tzardom into Russian Empire.
40D: Spot for a garden: SIDE YARD. None of these flowers attracts me.
41D: "Pronto": ASAP. The medical ASAP is STAT.
46A: Basic need: SHELTER. I thought of BREATHE. It has 7 letters also.
48D: Blessing evokers: ACHOOS. I like last time's "Cold burst?" clue. I also like Rich Norris's "Polar outbust?" for BRR.
49D: Canned heat: STERNO. Not a familiar brand name to me. How do you use it?
50D: Sabra's home: ISRAEL. I forgot what/who Sabra is. Last time SABRA was clued as "Native Israeli". It's literally "prickly pear". A person who immigrates to ISRAEL is called OLEH (masculine) or OLAH (feminine).
52D: 1598 edict city: NANTES. Edict of NANTES.
53D: Cowboy singer TEX: RITTER. Father of John RITTER.
58D: MDCLXII÷III: DLIV. 1662/3=554. So proud that I got the answer. Took me 2 minutes to calculate. What can I say? I am slow.
59D: Container weight: TARE. What is the other 4-letter word very similar to TARE? Also weight related. It appears in Xword often also.
60D: __ de vente: bill of sale: ACTE. Not familiar with "ACTE de vente". I do know vente is "sale" in French though.
64D: Rio or Rondo: KIA. The Korean hanja 起亞 (KIA) means "Rising out of Asia". The same characters in Chinese. KI is "rising", A is "Asia".
65D: Shaky start?: ESS. The start of "Shaky" is letter S.
Answer grid.
C.C.
PS: Our fellow solver Carl V sent me this wonderful famous people painting link.
